Read Like a Demon

Tuesday was a very sad day for the Melbourne Football Club, with the passing of Jim Stynes, a leader in the community and a great contributor to lives of young people.

It was fitting that the Club’s community department was out in the City of Casey last night, with our Read like a Demon ambassadors, Cale Morton and Colin Garland.

With these two players in attendance, the Melbourne Football Club launched its ‘Read like a Demon’ literacy program for 2012 during an ‘Inspire Your Kids to Read Forum’ at Monash Berwick.

Taking a moment to reflect on Jim’s legacy with his great community work through the Reach Foundation and the Melbourne Football Club, the night was then launched by Felice Arena - the author of Specky Magee.

Felice, as well as Col and Cale, made the night a hilarious, jam packed celebration of reading and writing. Youngsters from Casey primary schools were engaged and entertaining, with performances from the families in the audience and some wonderful interaction. The highlight of the night was when Felice asked Colin Garland to do the robot and dance for the more than 150 people filling the theatre. Colin obliged with some fantastic dance moves, and was joined by the children at the event who moon walked, crunked and robot danced!

The Read like a Demon Program offers students the opportunity to participate in reading and writing workshops with the Melbourne Football Club. In 2012, the program will be extended beyond Casey to primary schools around Victoria, Northern Territory and even an international school in Wuxi, Jiangsu, China. The Read like a Demon program has four structured sessions, a Blog and the Demon Day Out reading and writing competition.

The Read like a Demon (RLAD) Blog offers a forum via which to promote books and reading to children aged 7-12 years, giving them diverse opportunities for online contributions.

The RLAD Blog offers its participants and the broader community the chance to read and comment on various books, and allows students to post book reviews.

The program is a joint partnership between the Melbourne Football Club, Casey Cardinia Library Corporation, Bayside Library services and publisher Hardie Grant Egmont.

Read like a Demon also welcomes for the second consecutive year its Program Partner - Officeworks.

"Officeworks is pleased to support such a valuable community initiative, which supports children’s literacy skills and inspires kids towards a love of reading," said Officeworks National Marketing Manager, David Llewellyn.

"As a business, we’re committed to supporting the educational needs of Australia's children as well as their educators, teachers and parents, and Read like a Demon is a key component of this commitment."